My personal feelings on the matter:
I've owned four F150s (and one F350 and one F450 for camper towing) for twenty years, mostly in Alaska, but now in the East Coast. I've never been a lead foot, it's rare that I feel the need to "gun it". I suppose I'd not be buying a truck if that was my goal.
I do like having power at my disposal, but there is a point where anything more is unnecessary (for me). There is a trade-off, there always is. The TRX gets around 9 mpg from what I've seen in reviews and heard from one owner I know. That would never be worth it (to me).
I suppose some people love the idea of a V8 under the hood, for the sound and the potential power (that I'll never use), but to me it feels like it would be like when we used to put playing cards in our bicycle spokes as a kid so that our bikes sounded cool. What's the point (again, this is just my opinion)?
Maybe I'm just an older demographic (I'm 46), but I like fuel efficiency, and I like having a truck that can handle anything I can throw at it, minus a street race. I also like being able to go approximately 500 miles on a tank.
People put so much value into the phrase "v eight" that it's like they lost understanding of what it used to mean and why it used to be so important. Engines like the one in the Raptor are ages ahead of what we used to see in the days of "old iron".
I'm very happy with the truck. If the only engine option had been a V8 that got 9 mpg then I probably would have bought a regular F150 (perhaps a Tremor).